In the latest in our series of laptop reviews, we take a look at the Dell …

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Introduction

Ahh yes, the eternal notebook shopping question ? whether to buy a small, light, ultraportable laptop, or to get something with a little more meat on its bones, a true desktop replacement. Does one part with additional hard-earned cash in search of greater portability? Where exactly is that sweet spot where power, price, and weight all come together to make the ultimate in mobile computing? What about reliability and warranty? These are just a few of the challenges confronting folks who are currently in the market for a new notebook PC. Fortunately, I was spared the agony of having to answer those questions myself since the decision had already been made by "the powers that be," and a bright shiny new Dell Latitude D800 was delivered to my office.

Dell manufactures two lines of notebooks, the Inspiron series and the Latitude series. The Inspiron line is marketed as their consumer notebook line and typically have options such as newer video cards that have a little more horsepower in order to play more graphics-intensive games. The components and drivers are more frequently updated in the Inspiron and may even differ slightly from machine to machine within the same model.

The Latitude, on the other hand, is positioned as Dell's business machine. As such, component and driver stability over the life of the model line are emphasized over the latest and greatest hardware and drivers. The Latitude is all about stability and manageability, which is a good thing for overworked IT staff like myself. Let's have a look at exactly what I've got here

Configuration

This is the configuration of the D800 as reviewed:

Intel Pentium M CPU at 1.6GHz

512MB of DDR SDRAM (2x256MB, upgradeable to 2048MB)

Hitachi 40GB 5400 RPM drive

15.4" WUXGA (1920x1200) display

NVIDIA GeForce4 Go 4200 with 32MB of video memory

Internal 56K Modem

Dell Integrated 802.11b/g Wireless card

Internal 1000/100/10 Gigabit Ethernet

DVD/CD-RW

Windows XP Professional

The software installation on my D800 includes Windows XP Professional, Microsoft Office (Office XP Professional in this case), Symantec Anti Virus, and the standard assortment of manufacturer-installed utilities. Dell provides a handful of system utilities that will probably be of little interest to the typical Ars Technica reader, but may be of use to people who are not as familiar with how to control the power settings on a notebook, for example. So far, I have not needed or used any of the Dell utility applications.